With its two global divisions, Brenntag Essentials and Brenntag Specialties, Brenntag offers a complete portfolio of industrial and specialty chemicals and ingredients. In addition, they also offer customized applications, marketing and supply chain solutions, technical and formulation support, extensive regulatory knowledge, and digital solutions for various customers in various industries. Brenntag has more than 17,500 employees worldwide and operates a network of more than 600 locations in 72 countries.
Transformation Brenntag
When asked what Brenntag does, Jacob Lindberg (Sr. Director Global IT Services & Operations) replied that it’s really not so much about what Brenntag does, but rather what transformation the company is currently undergoing. “Over the last five years, we have been transforming from a traditional company to a digital company. We were decentralized, with the associated decentralized reporting tools. We have now started looking more and more at how we can serve the same customer in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) together with different divisions, more in synergy. We have also appointed a Chief Transformation Officer and the focus of our business has shifted to data. We have a huge amount of data, and we can take advantage of that with AI and machine learning for our customers.” Brenntag therefore also started a “Digital Office” for data analytics, and it came to be physically located in Amsterdam. This is where the company then brought many new employees on board to fulfill the new digital functions.
Setting up Digital Office with Root3
“It turned out that machine learning and AI work better on Apple,” Jacob continues. “That’s why we set up the Digital Office with Apple devices. But the management of that, we were not familiar with that internally in the IT department. We then asked around, ‘Does anyone know a party that can do that well?’ A colleague from the Amsterdam office then came up with Root3.”
Communication, collaboration and unburdening
David M. Vig (Sr. Manager Client Services & CSD) continues: “We had an introduction to Root3 and then we were immediately sold. We did look at some other options, but Root3 is really an expert in Apple and offered us the best solution with Jamf.” Brenntag has been using the Apple Managed Services solution since 2022, with first-level support and, among other things, the App Catalog that keeps all apps up-to-date. It started with 70 devices at the time and that has grown toward the 100 mark. “We are satisfied with the way we work together as an IT department with Root3. We communicate with each other through Trello, emails, various meetings and the QBR where we discuss where we stand with each other. It gives a nice feeling that workplace management is in good hands with Root3, because we simply do not have the specific knowledge for this internally.”
Jacob agrees; for him, too, the cooperation with Root3 is going according to plan. What the future holds, he says, is an interesting question at the moment and difficult to say with all the current developments. He does foresee that Brenntag and the Digital Office will continue to grow and if that continues in the current setup, it will certainly happen in cooperation with Root3.
